BAPTIST GRAVEYARD
(Salisbury Heights)
Baptist Graveyard
LOCATION: On Route 4 north to Salisbury Heights community, town common area. On left behind Old Baptist Church. Good Condition and access.
“The Center Road, or Baptist cemetery, was laid out at the time of the building of the church, in 1791. Previous to that time, the people in this neighborhood buried their dead in the field east of F.W. Fifields house. The land was given by Able Elkins. The oldest stone is that of Rhoda, wife of Reuben True, and daughter of Gov. Josiah Bartlett, 1794- Here are buried the Sawyers, Fifields, Pettengills, Websters, and Adamses.”-John Dearborn, The History of Salisbury 1890
Note: The house referenced as the F.W. Fifield House may be the Hattan House across the road and down several houses from the Church. Since 1775 and the first owner Joseph Fifield, several generations and families of Fifields have owned the house and several were named Frederick however none were named Frederick W. Fifield according to Paul Shaw’s Historical Houses Salisbury Houses.
Another consideration is that between 1775 and 1790 the Fifield brothers built 4 homes.
More research is needed on the location of the original burial ground in the fields mentioned by Dearborn.
This list is a compilation of data from the study of tombstones by Priscilla Hammond in 1933.